John H. Sengstacke

John Herman Henry Sengstacke (November 25, 1912 – May 28, 1997) was an American newspaper publisher and owner of the largest chain of African-American oriented newspapers in the United States. Sengstacke was also a civil rights activist and worked for a strong black press, founding the National Newspaper Publishers Association in 1940, to unify and strengthen African-American owned papers. Sengstacke served seven terms as president of the association, which by the early 21st century had 200 members.

A nephew of newspaper founder, Robert Sengstacke Abbott, Sengstacke was Abbott's designated heir to take over the Chicago Defender, which he did after his uncle's death in 1940. Sengstacke also published the Michigan Chronicle in Detroit; the Tri-State Defender in Memphis, Tennessee; and acquired the Pittsburgh Courier in 1966, re–opening it the next year as the New Pittsburgh Courier. Sengstacke worked with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to have African-American reporters admitted to presidential press conferences. He pressed for opportunities in the United States Postal Service for African Americans. One of Sengstacke's major political goals was to desegregate the armed forces. President Harry Truman supported this goal, naming Sengstacke to the commission he formed in 1948 to integrate the military. Sengstacke died in 1997 at age 84. In 2000, he was posthumously presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Biography Early life and education John Herman Henry Sengstacke was born in Savannah, Georgia, to Herman Alexander (called Alexander) Sengstacke and his wife Rosa Mae Davis on November 25, 1912. He was named for his paternal grandfather, John H. Sengstacke, a Congregationalist minister, teacher and publisher. The elder Sengstacke was the son of Herman Sengstacke, a German sea captain, and his wife Tama Melrose, a former slave from West Africa whose freedom he purchased in Georgia. She died young after the birth of their daughter. Sengstacke returned to Germany, taking his mixed-race children for relatives to raise while he was on ships. Later, Sengstacke and his son returned to the US.

Several years later, John H. Sengstacke was ordained as a Congregationalist minister. After settling in Woodville, now a neighborhood of Savannah, Georgia, he became a teacher to improve black education, and a publisher of two local newspapers, including the Woodville Times. Stewart Alsop, John Kenneth Galbraith, Leon Henderson,

Two years later, the paper won the John B. Russwurm Award for the best national African-American newspaper.

Death and legacy John Sengstacke died on May 28, 1997. His chain of newspapers was run under a family trust until 2003. It was sold to Real Times, whose investors included people with family and business ties to him. Among the new owners was Sengstacke's nephew Thomas Sengstacke Picou. In 2002, he said his plans for the New Pittsburgh Courier included more emphasis on in-depth features and arts, creating a web presence — which neither it nor the Defender had at the time — and changing its political outlook from liberal to "conservative independence".

Honors 1976, the New Pittsburgh Courier won the John B. Russwurm Award for the best national African-American newspaper. On January 8, 2001, Sengstacke was awarded posthumously with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton. Thomas Sengstacke Picou, nephew of John, headed a group of business people including Sengstacke's only son Robert A. Sengstacke. They purchased Sengstacke's chain of four newspapers in 2012, at the time the largest black-owned chain of African-American newspapers in the country. Robert A. Sengstacke, his surviving son, donated the Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers to the Chicago Public Library, where they are available for scholars.